The music teacher at an exclusive prep school is found dead in his car. He had been trapped in there with dozens of rats. It was a prank gone bad – the teacher had a heart attack when he saw swarms of rats coming after him. By morning, when he was discovered, the rats had eaten away large portions of the teacher’s flesh. In the bushes nearby, Geiger Exterminator cages are found. Mr. Geiger is a crusty, agitated old man who lives and works out of trailers under a bridge. He lives with his son Rodney, a violin prodigy with dozens of pet rats who was recently suspended from the music academy for fighting. Father and son are both brought in for questioning. Rodney recognizes Nick as a Grimm, and reveals himself to be a reinegan. He does not trust Nick, even though he promises he just wants to help. Rodney has a solid alibi – he was DJing at a rave under the moniker Retchid Katt. He wears an enormous cat head while he performs, but the promoter confirmed it was him.

Rodney is free to go, but his dad must remain in custody until his alibi can be confirmed. Rodney pays a visit to Sarah, his ex-girlfriend and fellow violinist. She asks if he killed the teacher; he thinks her new boyfriend Carter did it to set him up. After all, it was Carter and his buddies that picked the fight that got Rodney suspended. At home, Rodney gets a call from the police – his father was injured while resisting police orders and ended up with a concussion. This sets Rodney off. He trashes his room, then goes out to the lean-to where his pet rats live. He sets them all free, grabs his violin and Katt head, and sets everything else on fire.

Rodney texts Sarah, Carter, and their lackeys to let them know of a Retchid Katt rave. The four are excited and head to the location. Upon arriving, they discover they are the only ones there besides Katt and his hundreds of rats. He plays the violin, at which point the kids recognize him.The rats swarm in on the kids, but Nick and Hank arrive in time to scare the rats off with a gunshot into the air. Rodney runs off. The kids are arrested – they found evidence that the rats from the teacher’s corpse had spent time in Carter’s SUV. They finally admit that they framed Rodney for the fight and the rat prank.

Also: Hank runs into Adalind at the bar and they have dinner. Juliette hires a repair man to fix the fridge, and he freaks out when he sees Nick, and shifts briefly into some kind of mouse creature. Juliette figures Nick must have arrested him once, but when she mentions it to the repair man, he is confused – and panicked that Nick knows of his existence.

Dig It or Bury It?

I really liked this episode. It was the first episode that, instead of being half procedural, half fantasy, was a fantastical procedural. The Grimm aspect of Nick is no longer this horrible secret he is learning to cope with; it is a part of who he is as a cop and a human being. It was just a well paced, well structured episode. Granted, this one wasn’t very “monstery,” and did have a scene with Monroe trying to have a heart-to-heart with Rodney that came off very “after-school special.” But I like to think the show is starting to find balance.

Big Bad…

Reinegan. Rhymes with Heineken. Very little is shared about the reinegan. They have rat-like faces and are essentially pied pipers. Monroe mentions that the reinegan and blutbards are not exactly “friends.”

Fractured Fairy Tales

As the uniforms are arresting the prep school kids…

Wu: “You kids will have to face the music.”

Hank: “Really? You went there?”

Wu: “Someone had to.”

Prophecies?

The three little pigs take revenge on the big bad wolf by blowing his house… up.